Newsletter

Georgia guard out for 2009 season

Georgia guard Tanner Strickland will miss the 2009 season with a shoulder injury.

Tanner, a sophomore, will need surgery following an injury to his right shoulder in off-season workouts. Georgia director of sports medicine Ron Courson said a full recovery is expected.

Tanner was listed as Georgia's starting left guard on the team's preseason depth chart. The backup is junior Chris Davis .

Strickland played in 13 games in 2008 on special teams and as a backup lineman after being redshirted in 2007.

- Georgia coach Mark Richt has awarded a scholarship to senior defensive lineman Brandon Wheeling , a walk-on from Paulding County High School.

Wheeling transferred to Georgia from West Georgia last year. He was named the team's outstanding walk-on in spring practice this year.

GEORGIA STATE: Todd Perry , who played for Bill Curry at Kentucky before an 11-year career in the NFL, is back with Curry as an assistant coach at Georgia State.

Curry said Perry will coach offensive tackles and tight ends for the Panthers, who will play their first season in 2010.

Perry was an all-Southeastern Conference guard for Kentucky in 1992.

MOUNTAIN WEST: After taking its fight to change the Bowl Champ-ionships Series to Congress, the Mountain West Conference is re-luctantly agreeing to a BCS television deal.

The Mountain West still doesn't receive an automatic berth to a BCS game, but needed to sign the agreement with ESPN so the league's nine schools would still be eligible to play in one of the top-tier bowls.

University of Utah president Michael Young , who testified the day before at a Senate subcommittee hearing, says the conference believed it had no choice other than to sign the agreement, which runs through the 2013 season.

"Our goal is to ensure the eventual outcome of these endeavors is what our universities and student-athletes need, what the vast majority of American sports fans want, and what is long overdue: an equitable system," Young said.